GGibson

These are looking really sharp, Mustafa! Great work and very consistent. How are you filling the bolt holes? Anxious to see how you will create the trunnions, as well. (See how much I have learned about cannons and carronades in the past few months?!? 🤣) The wooden trucks will look great at this scale and being under the carriages, they will look realistic. Awesome work, sir!

Looks like a good plan, Jon! And how many of these will be on the deck? Whew! Watching with great interest! 👍🏆

Excellent production line, Mustafa! Nice looking carriage units. Yes, my Proxxon mill will get plenty of work once I get to my Constitution! Happy Holidays to you gentlemen, as well. You've been great as I've been watching your progress.

Thanks for that info, Mustafa! I may have missed your explanation earlier, but what type of wood are you using for these carriages? Excited to see the final shaping and, of course, how they will look painted. 👍

Well, crap! Hate to hear that! And I just bought their 0.2-1.1mm package. Granted, they were only $5.57 for the package (maybe that was an indication of quality?!?), but sorry to hear they won't work for the intended purpose. Did the RPM speed have an effect on that, Jon? Could you slow down the drill speed and they'd do better? I've got a bunch of the Gyros, as well, and have found that they are great for the pin vise, but the bits do wander when I put them in the Proxxon drill press. Well, like I said at the outset... crap! EDIT: I've saved vossiewulf's link to my "favorites" just in case... 🤷‍♂️🤣

Nice work, Mustafa! I may need to refer back to this chart if I try something like this on my Proxxon! They will sand out to nicely curved carriage sides. I assume you used the smallest 1.00mm milling cutter?

Thanks for your input, Gregory! The Malco blade you linked is one of them that I ordered. Also, I have a different sheet of wood that I'll run through the saw tomorrow. Not sure why I didn't just think of doing that right away. Appreciate your advice, vossiewulf! It is a Byrnes saw and I thought Jim designed his saw with a slight variance, but I will check if that is an issue, as well as checking the blade. Thanks!

Well, I may have just answered my own question... I was doing some additional reading here on MSW and found a thread from 2019 regarding the Thurston company closing. The "brand-new" blade I referred to in my previous post is a Thurston blade. Perhaps in the five years it was sitting around a warehouse, it lost its edge one way or another. In everything I have read, either here or on other saw blade websites, blade sharpness (or the lack thereof) seems to always be the #1 blame for burning. So... I ordered some new additional blades from Malco Saw Co, which was also highly recommended. We'll see if that makes a difference. Still interested in hearing from experienced woodchoppers if the cherry wood itself or the way it is cut contributes to any of that burning. Thanks again...

Sweet! Nice friend! Excellent work! 🏆

I have a 1/8" thick cherry board and I am cutting it into short 7/32" strips, so that I end up with a 1/8" x 7/32" piece. I am using a 0.028" slitting blade on my table saw, and the cut edges are burning while being cut. Is cherry wood susceptible to this? It is a brand-new blade, so it's not a dull blade issue. Any advice or remedies on preventing the burning? Thanks!

Carriage looks good, Mustafa! Will be interested in seeing what your final design/shape looks like. Sharp looking carronades, as well. Nice detail for that scale in brass. Where did you get your carronades?

Looks good, Mustafa! I'm not a regular router user, but I would think there would be some variation of bead or ogee-shaped bits that would be close to what you are attempting. Otherwise, your mill is doing great work! A little sanding on that curve would shape it nicely.

Yay! Great to hear that they are working for you with brass. Now I'll need to order some for my shipyard. 👍

Good looking knees, Peter! 👍

You will enjoy this build!

Thanks for sharing those pics, Jon! Lots of great detail in them.

Spar deck planking looks really sharp, kmart! Great work! Speaking of deck planking, though, back a few weeks ago, you prepped for your spar deck planking... I apologize if I missed this point previously but, as others have also recently commented in their Constitution build logs, since you added the gun deck as well as this spar deck, you obviously ran out of wood strips for your spar deck and milled the necessary planks as shown in your recent 11/25/24 update. A question I have been wanting to ask all of your current Constitution builders is... what type of wood did you use for the spar deck? Was it the boxwood or is it something else that might accent the deck's golden oak stain differently? And, as I've said with others, appreciate your detailed info in your build log. Definitely taking notes, sir! Thanks...

Still very interested in hearing how the new drill bits perform in their intended purpose! 👍 I have quickly learned that, if there was any process to follow, xken's details would be at the top of the list! I have enjoyed reading his detailed build log! Great detail on this skylight! As has been discussed on practically every forum post ad nauseum, the casual observer with the naked eye, especially if your Constitution is cased, is not going to see it the way you as the builder has, and if your friends and family show up with a magnifying glass to inspect, kick 'em out!! 🤣🤣 Great job, Jon!

Hi Jim! Good to hear from you. Back on Post #16, I mentioned that I continue to be horrible at airbrushing, which is the recommended process in staining everything on this Santa Maria. On Pavel Nikitin's website, he sells the painting kit recommended for his ships - Pavel Nikitin store. On that web page, it may be difficult to read the kit's various colors. They are: Dark Walnut, Rosewood, Patina, Oak, Danish Oil & Mahogany. As a side note, interestingly, although the Pavel Nikitin Santa Maria kit was purchased from Model Expo, ME does not sell the paint kit. Anyways, even though I knew I was not good at airbrushing, I was convinced that I had to have the paint kit, so I ordered it from Pavel's website. However, due to it being shipped from Ukraine and, I'm assuming with whatever delay issues it was having getting from Ukraine to Kansas, I decided to go with the "more conventional" staining route and use the Minwax products that I detailed in that Post #16 where I did some testing. I will do some additional "test applications" of the chosen Minwax Honey wood finish for the hull's stain before committing fully, but I was impressed and actually a bit surprised at how dark the "honey" stain was compared to the others I tested. I did eventually receive the paint kit shipment from Ukraine, so if the Minwax stains don't work out on the remaining ship areas, I'll see if I can apply Pavel's paints with any success. 🤷‍♂️

Hey Peter! Thanks for finding me here with this Santa Maria Pavel Nikitin build. It has definitely been... frustrating, as I still wrestle with some of the issues mentioned earlier in this log, with similar issues that others have run into that have been documented in YouTube videos of their own Pavel Nikitin Santa Maria's I won't get any more critical again here (gives a whole 'nother meaning to "kit bashing"...) but, as it stands now, I would definitely encourage you to keep the Bluenose in your short-term sights, as it was an awesome ship to build. I just finished the hull planking on my Santa Maria and am now working on construction of the forecastle deck, poop deck and quarter deck, along with building the various rails, placement of the four cannons, etc., along with determining at what point I will paint/stain the hull. I'll provide a more detailed update soon. But, again, sir, thanks for finding me here. Continued success on your Constitution! I am continuing my own research on Old Ironsides for when I complete this build!

Looks really nice, Peter! Great job on the rails.

Of course, Jon does.... 🤷‍♂️🤣🏆 Cool picture, though! Thanks for sharing, K!

The stirrup-type iron fitting would be hard to replicate, but I think your abilities did just fine with these bullseye attachments to the breast knee, Mustafa! Will look sharp once the pin rail is placed. Great work, sir!

Looks like a great way to create your main rail, Mustafa! The jig for holding the curved form worked out well! To create the half-lap joint (or whatever the technical term is for the continuous rail extension down the sides), did you use the mill to cut the wood on the ends for them to join? It will all look really nice!

Hi Julian - Not sure if this helps any, but... I have the 3-jaw chuck that I bought when I either bought the Proxxon drill or the Proxxon mill, and the chuck does open very "stiffly". Did your purchase come with one of the turn handles shown in my first picture? Using that really helps opening and closing, especially after tightening against whatever you are securing (and the subsequent release of said object). Also, if by chance you removed the jaws from the base, make sure you put the jaws back in the right spot. In the second picture, you see that the jaws and the base have 1-2-3 numbers. Apologize if you are already aware of this numbering, but wanted to point it out. But, did want to confirm that, yes, the chuck does open hard. Let us know how you like the lathe!